For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Politics and Democracy page and our Farm Issues page.
Mark Bittman has provided the ultimate Thanksgiving guide for anyone interested in making our broken food system work again. His exhaustive list of the 25 people or groups for which he is most thankful is a must-read. It starts with nutritionist and food system reform pioneer Marion Nestle and ends with “anyone who’s started a small farm in the last five years, and anyone who’s supported one; anyone who cooks, and especially anyone who teaches others to cook.” That covers a good portion of Grist readers, I’d like to point out. So good on all of you, too. Heaven knows, I’m thankful for you.

In the glass-half-full spirit, I thought I’d take a moment to point out some recent news developments for which we should also all be thankful.

The collapse of the deficit supercommittee

There are, no doubt, many reasons to be thankful for this. After all, we can cut our national debt by $7.1 trillion by doing absolutely nothing, so it’s not clear why we need a bunch of old men sitting in a room to come up with ways to cut less by performing all sorts of budgeting gymnastics. But, more to the point, it also follows that no deal in the supercommittee means no Secret Farm Bill. Or at least it means that reformers might still get a chance to weigh in on farm policy, in hopes of moving it away from large, wealthy corporate farms and towards farms who need and better deserve the support.